Ball boy

The purpose of a ball boy or ball girl is during competitions to collect the match ball in ball sports and kept for further use.

Areas of application

In sports where multiple balls are provided so that the game can be continued quickly, ball boys and girls are used to bring a ball back as quickly as possible into the game. Therefore, they regularly come in football, tennis, basketball, volleyball or cricket, baseball and American football are used.

Tennis

In tournaments are ball boys and girls indispensable helpers who may enter the playing field even when the game is interrupted. Usually children and young people are employed which rotate like the linesman after certain periods of use. Collection areas, movements, ball distribution, behavior and gestures towards the players are subject to fixed rules. In general, ball boys and girls are positioned in the corners Court and at the net. In addition to the ball distribution, they are also used, the players between rallies to hand towels.

First time ball boys came in 1920 at Wimbledon for use. Since 1977, girls also are used in this function.

Football

Although the soccer ball boys noticed only very rarely, as they enter the court only in exceptional cases, they are sometimes the focus. In several cases, ball boys were part of or even stood in the center of the public reporting:

• In the semi-final match of the English League Cup between Swansea City and Chelsea on 23 January 2013, a ball boy slowed with the score at 2-0 to Swansea the game, whereupon the Chelsea players Eden Hazard tried to wrest from him the ball, but failed. Hazard consequently kicked the ball boys, whereupon this schmerzverzerrt rolled on the ground. Then saw Hazard red card and was also banned for three games. Later it became known that the ball boy had already planned before the game to delay the game deliberately to provoke the Chelsea players.
• Involuntary became famous for a ball boy at the European Championships in 2012 than in the 21 minutes of the match Netherlands against Germany was shown on TV, as it the ball was pushed away from Germany's national coach Joachim Löw. Later it turned out that the scene was recorded before the game and was then played during the game, which drew a large media interest.